Rhys’ background is very much covered in the film synopsis. Rhys has always heard a voice inside his head; the voice of a woman; as a result of his schizophrenia. He was not diagnosed with this illness until he became 17, and so, much of his behaviour has been incomprehensible to his peers and he therefore has become rejected by society as he’s gotten older. However, as a result of his late diagnosis Rhys’ condition has developed and worsened as oppose to being treated. With the combination of his drug habits his illness has manifested itself in his mind; his smoking of cannabis since he was 13 and recent mixture of prescription drugs with LSD at a certain rave. This manifestation included the production of a visual hallucination to go along with the voice in his head; this being the woman in the gas mask. This covers Rhys’ mental situation.Rhys’ family and friends are hardly that which you would call them- they have become too afraid to be in close contact with him and therefore Rhys is a very isolated character which contributes to his lack of acceptable social behaviour and thinking. It’s a mystery to why his condition wasn’t recognised earlier in his life – probably because he was fairly secluded to begin with, so no one was really close enough to him to notice.
Drugs and music is how Rhys tries to cope with his abnormal life, in actual fact he fails to realise what is normal or reality. His mind is so distorted that he is unable to conform to the regularities of human behaviour. Perhaps his relation to music is an exception to this- as most people do enjoy music as a form of expression. Aside from this, he is quite out of the ordinary.
This character doesn’t care for appearances, or doesn’t understand the need or desire to, and thus dresses very casually and perhaps fairly scruffily. Clothes are clothes to him; material objects don’t hold much importance in his mind. In his spare time it is apparent that he spends quality moments with himself – either held up in his flat or out on walks to goodness knows where. Nobody really knows what he thinks about or what he gets up to.
Good depth Catrin. Consider how Rhys fits into or challenges conventional thriller characters, making reference to existing thrillers.
ReplyDeleteOften in thrillers, usual people tend to find themselves in unusual circumstances or situations. Rhys is meant to look fairly usual and ordinary but is affected by a rather extraordianry thing, as explained above. Conventional characters of thrillers do tend to include that of an antagonist and a victim - in our case Rhys is our victim. Victims are made to seem vulnerable and either innocent or someone who sometimes seems to indulge in things that are a little looked down upon making them seem more liable to being killed (like Rhys with drug taking).
ReplyDeleteExamples of such situations and characters in existing thrillers include Ginger and Briget from Ginger Snaps; there are both two teenage girls automatically making them seem vulnerable and they are social outcasts of society due to their interests almost invisibly connecting them to unfortunate events. Examples of particular ordinary and unfortunate characters that play the part of victim are those such as Christine Brown from Drag Me to Hell. Her last name is even very common to emphasis her normality. In this film she just happens to be the victim of a gypsy curse rather unjustly, and she still dies.